Secret Life of Pets 2

Some friends of ours rent a theater once a year and invite all their clients and friends to come watch. This year, they showed The Secret Life of Pets 2. It is such a cute movie, and was so much fun!

BEST. VIDEO. EVER.

Honest, this video will make your day. And, these kids really deserve an Emmy for theit performance.

The Nutcracker

We took the girls to see The Nutcracker. It was a lot of fun. Ben thinks the girls are ready to graduate to the full Nutcracker next year. Or, to go downtown and see The Christmas Carol- which is what Ben would like to do. I don't know if they are ready for that yet,but we are getting close. Oh, the joys of not having babies! The world is our oyster!

Please notice that Camille is wearing a swimsuit over her pajama shirt. Yup, that is what we are reduced to.

Vegas Food Porn

A friend used the term "food porn" on FB and I thought it was hilarious. Ben did not- he hates the term. But, I like it and the terms fits with all the food we enjoyed while in Vegas, and since I am the one who writes the post I decided to use the term despite his protests.

Here is the food diary from our trip:

We got to the strip and got checked in around noon. We decided to just eat at the hotel- at Il Fornaio. 

Ben had never been to The Hard Rock Cafe. We decided Vegas was the perfect place for him to try it out! We went to the older one not on the strip. We were basically the only people there- there was one other couple. We realized that Vegas life doesn't really start until about 10 PM, which is right when we go to bed. It worked out well for us, though, as there were no lines anywhere. Perfect.

Ben ordered an unbelievably delicious chicken mac and cheese- it was divine! I ordered their cheeseburger.

We got a fruit tart to take back to our hotel. It was deceptive. The crust was super hard- it wasn't as good as it looked.
I suppose that is a metaphor for Vegas. But that is another topic altogether.

On day 2 we ate breakfast crepes at 48th and Crepe inside NY NY. We really LOVE crepes!

We ate lunch at The Venetian. Ben ordered a pizza, I ordered their meatball sandwich special.

For dinner we knew we had to go to a buffet. We actually did a good job, I think, of not being too gluttonous. The buffet was the one and only time we really did stuff ourselves. We went to Le Village Buffet in Paris. They had more crepes (nice!), crab legs, a carvery, delicious salmon, some great desserts (my favorites were the macaroons), and lots, and lots, and lots more. We had walked over 26,000 steps so we were tired and hungry. We took our time and enjoyed ourselves. It was nice.

3 Minutes Of Fame

As many of you know I had the opportunity today to appear on The Everyday Show- a local daytime show affiliated with the local news network.

A few weeks ago, my Weight Watchers leader asked me if I would join her on the show to talk about healthy snacks. I thought it would be fun, so I figured- why not? My Weight Watchers leader does a segment every month but has never brought a customer because it's pretty much just a commercial when you do that. But, Linda (my group leader), has created a great relationship with the show and they were willing to let her do this segment.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I called Ben right before I walked inside and told him I was pretty nervous. But, in reality, as soon as we went in and met the hosts and the producers, I felt very comfortable. Plus, at this point Linda is a pro and knew exactly what to say and do, so I knew I was in good hands.

The coolest part was seeing the behind the scenes of the newsroom! The energy was palpable! I really thought that if I had seen that before I went to college, I might have gone into broadcasting/journalism instead of teaching.

Here are some photos of the studio:

 It's basically a large warehouse type room with several different stages. The cameras stay in the center and just move from stage to stage depending on the segment.

 This is back at the news desks- this place was hopping, and so cool! I could hear someone saying, "The Denver Cops won't go on record, but this is what they're saying...."

 The green stage

 And, above is the stage that we used- a small kitchen.

Below is me with Megan- the guest co-host for the day:

 One of the other stages above.

Me with Linda below:

The people were so friendly! Chris is talking behind us, and he was CRAZY- but so incredibly nice. He has won an Emmy for hosting. On TV he is animated and wild, and live he is SO MUCH MORE animated- it was fun to watch. And, it made me realize that these shows are so much about theatre- which is fine, but sometimes we forget that these shows are really about entertainment, not necessarily about news. It was fun to see first hand.

And, in case you missed it, you can see the segment HERE.

My Math

So this weekend turned out quite well.

Though incredibly stressful, both the Broncos and the Seahawks won- a dream come true!

Next weekend, both teams will play for a chance to go to to the SuperBowl.

I figure that the Broncos have a 50% chance of winning next week, and the Seahawks have a 50% chance as well. That means I have a 100% chance of at least one of them making it into the SuperBowl.

Ben says my math is flawed, but I say my math is perfect. We'll see how next Sunday goes!

Spotted Owl

We came home from school today, and Audra said, "Mom! There's an owl outside!"

What???

This was definitely a first. I have never seen an owl in our backyard, but today a good hour was spent watching every movement of the owl perched on our back fence:

I guess you just never know what you will find in the suburbs!

Aquarium

We were invited by some friends to go to the Aquarium. We had never been before, but it was great! I was really impressed with how well they made all of the exhibits. I only wish Ben could have gone. Hopefully we will go again soon and he can come with us!

The Three Musketeers. Getting a picture of all three of them looking at the camera AND smiling turned out to be impossible.

 Without a doubt the highlight of the day (week, month, year- you get the idea) were the mermaids. They were SO cool- I was also incredibly impressed. How do they keep their mouths open and smile and blow air bubbles AND not drown all at the same time?

 Audra insisted on wearing a nice dress because she needed to look nice for the mermaids.

 Claire looks sweet and innocent here, and for the most part she was incredibly well behaved today (thank goodness! Without Ben I was pretty worried),  BUT her mantra became: "Too scared!" Meaning, she was too scared to walk, she needed to be carried. Shockingly, she did NOT want me to carry her. It had to be the other mom who was with us. If I tried to take her, she would cry and say she was "too scared" to come to me. Thanks, Claire- I sure feel loved.

 Audra and A- they are so cute, and all three of them just love each other so much. It is really sweet.

 They have a pretend submarine with buttons and such that the kids can play with . It was a huge hit- the kids could have stayed there for an hour.

A note about the monkey backpack: This is one of those harness things with a tail so I can hold onto Claire through the exhibit. She was SOOOO excited to wear the monkey backpack- and even insisted on wearing it the rest of the day and she had to sleep with it. I took the tail off because she was doing a great job of staying with us, but she just wanted to keep wearing the monkey. It was really cute.

 The "Coral Climb"

 Can you see Audra? I thought this was great- the kids could feel like they were in the water.

 Ahhh, the best part of the day. Audra was in Heaven.

 Claire was not.

 Even outside the exhibit there were fun things for the kids to play with.

It is pretty expensive to go to the Aquarium, but I can easily see why. The exhibits are incredible, the fish are exotic, the mermaids are great- it really was neat. I was very, very impressed. This is not something we will do every week, but once every year or two would definitely be worth it. We had a great time!

Sand Castles

The sand castle World Championship is "in town" so my mom, sister, and I trekked with the kiddos to see these stunning structures. It was pretty cool to see these beautiful talents on display. Unfortunately, the girls just wanted to play in the sand- not observe their beauty. Oh, well.

Here is Audra tickling Claire- they sure do love each other!